“They have brought the drugs from the Cambodian-Lao border to Preah Vihear province to Phnom Penh. They were arrested by anti-drug police when they brought it to sell to undercover police,” he said.

According to Captain Heap Daroath, chief of the Anti-Drug Police Unit in the Ministry of Interior, officers spent a month investigating and establishing a relationship with the group before they agreed to sell the drugs for an estimated $10,000.

In court, Vongphim said he was not a drug trafficker, but simply came to Cambodia to purchase medicine to treat a liver condition from which he suffers.